ArticleScientific reports2023
Background matching through fast and reversible melanin-based pigmentation plasticity in tadpoles comes with morphological and antioxidant changes.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- A transcriptome analysis revealing the molecular mechanism of light intensity-driven color variation in the skin of Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus).BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Combined impacts of warming and methomyl on neurophysiological and behavioral responses in Amazonian frog tadpoles.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2026Article
- Fading on the beach: pigmentation plasticity adjusts coloration to substrate type in coastal Western spadefoot toads.Current zoology · 2025Article
- Larval Pigmentation Reveals Environmental and Genetic Influences in Hybridizing Ambystoma Salamanders.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Background color matching affects sexual behavior, growth, and mortality rate in an African cichlid.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
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Abstract
Facultative colour change is widespread in the animal kingdom, and has been documented in many distantly related amphibians. However, experimental data testing the extent of facultative colour change, and associated physiological and morphological implications are comparatively scarce. Background matching in the face of spatial and temporal environmental variation is thought to be an important proximate function of colour change in aquatic amphibian larvae. This is particularly relevant for species with long larval periods such as the western spadefoot toad, Pelobates cultripes, whose tadpoles spend up to six months developing in temporary waterbodies with temporally variable vegetation. By rearing tadpoles on different coloured backgrounds, we show that P. cultripes larvae can regulate pigmentation to track fine-grained differences in background brightness, but not hue or saturation. We found that colour change is rapid, reversible, and primarily achieved through changes in the quantity of eumelanin in the skin. We show that this increased eumelanin production and/or maintenance is also correlated with changes in morphology and oxidative stress, with more pigmented tadpoles growing larger tail fins and having an improved redox status.
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